Poor leadership will drag down the state

Once again Jim Mueller, vice chair of the Jackson County Republican Party enlightens us with his Tea Party perspective on austerity and the path to economic recovery in North Carolina, citing the example of Detroit as a warning to those who borrow too much. Detroit’s crisis has more to do with deindustrialization: from 2000 to 2010, metro Detroit lost 52 percent of its manufacturing jobs. The federal government bailed out the Big Three automakers, but that did not stop the shuttering of factories or the offshoring of production.

Mr. Mueller would rather blame the victims of hard times. He offers us the same old “double down on trickle down:” more corporate tax breaks and a state budget that unfairly taxes the middle class more than the wealthier 5 percent. This is how you create jobs. We are asked to be patient and give Gov. McCrory’s economic plan time to show results.

I’m out of patience with the phony war on austerity. We see that the state needs to spend millions on problems that don’t exist: from drug testing applicants for public assistance to restoring confidence in our elections by passing a new omnibus bill that state legislators passed overhauling how elections are held in North Carolina. That bill, “An Act To Restore Confidence In Government By Establishing The Voter Information Verification Act To Promote The Electoral Process Through Education ...,” mandates the use of new voting machines that will produce a paper ballot.

In the case of Jackson County, the current voting machines already produce a traceable paper audit log. The cost of these new machines to Jackson County will be between a quarter and a half million dollars. Multiply this by 100 counties.

Detroit does provide some insight into our state’s problems. It’s had a share of flawed leadership. North Carolina is now seeing its share of failed leadership. I’ve seen enough.

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Reading Room

The first weeks of 2018 have seen some offbeat books shamble across my desk and into my fingers. First up is John Buchan’s Mr. Standfast, also known as Mr. Steadfast. Buchan, a Scottish novelist and politician who served as Governor General of Canada from 1935…